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TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow

Liam, Maddy and Alex escape death and become recruits of an agency that fixes broken history.

There is something very Doctor Who-esque about Timebomb. First of all it is full of wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey stuff. Then there is the small matter of a simple touch that can send one spiralling into a different year, decade, century. Clever folk start talking of paradoxes and older versions of people appear in front of their younger selves.

Calm yourselves, this isn’t the work of Steven Moffat, (there is not a weeping angel in sight) but it is just as effective.

Author Scott K Andrews delivers a baffling but beefy opening chunk to his Timebomb Trilogy that centres around three teenagers, past, present and future.

Dora, Kaz and Jana are flung together for reasons they cannot fathom; their only connection is the pantomime baddie, Lord Sweetclover who has collected them from their respective time periods and deposited them in his lab.

Coming from 1640, Dora struggles with comical effect at the technology, hygiene, language and chocolate that she encounters. There is little time to adjust as a shape shifting man, known only as Steve, arrives to rescue the time travelling trio. Dora is initially thrilled to be reunited with her own century, unfortunately for her, Jana and Kaz they arrive slap bang in the middle of the Civil War.

As with most trilogies, there are very few answers in this first novel. In fact it unfolds much like an episode of 24, as one crisis is avoided another rocks up to take it’s place. Ordinarily this would be hugely frustrating, but here it aids the fast tempo and gives the narrative its momentum and pace.

Timebomb and its cross-curricular genre could potentially be the answer to secondary school teachers the world over; History, Science and Literature all in one neat, little package.